A light-sensitive material comprising a support and a light-sensitive layer containing silver halide, a reducing agent and a polymerizable compound is used in an image forming method. The image forming method comprises image wise exposing to light the light-sensitive material to form a latent image of silver halide, and developing the light-sensitive material to imagewise polymerize the polymerizable compound.
Examples of the image forming method are described in Japanese Patent Publications No. 45(1970)-11149 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,275), No. 47(1972)-20741 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,667) and No. 49(1974)-10697, and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 57(1982)-138632, No. 57(1982)-142638, No. 57(1982)-176033, No. 57(1982)-211146 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,997), No. 58(1983)-107529 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,637), No. 58(1983)-121031 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,450) and No. 58(1983)-169143. In the image forming method disclosed in the aforementioned publications, when the exposed silver halide is developed using a developing solution, the polymerizable compound is induced to polymerize in the presence of a reducing agent to form a polymer image. Thus, this method need a wet development process using a developing solution. There. fore, the process takes a relatively long time.
An improved image forming method employing a dry process is described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publications No. 61(1986)-69062 and No. 61(1986)-73145 (the contents of both publications are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,676 and European Patent Provisional Publication No. 0174634A2). In this image forming method, a recording material (light-sensitive material) comprising a light-sensitive layer containing a light-sensitive silver salt (silver halide), a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound and a binder provided on a support is imagewise exposed to light to form a latent image, and then the material is heated to polymerize within the area where the latent image of the silver halide has been formed.
In the above-mentioned light-sensitive material, the silver halide and the polymerizable compound are preferably contained in microcapsules which are dispersed in the light-sensitive layer. The light-sensitive material employing the microcapsules gives a clear image improved in the sharpness. The light-sensitive material employing the microcapsules is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,629,676, 4,767,690, 4,833,062 and European Patent Provisional Publication No. 0203613A2.